The Canada Otter 833 



sometimes succeed in shooting or trapping the Otter at its 

 sliding place, which may be easily recognized." 



Similar testimony is supplied by my Adirondack guide, 

 Bert A. Dobson. 



One day in September, he was hunting Deer near Cran- 

 berry Lake, N. Y., and heard a loud splashing. On crawling 

 near he saw 3 Otter (mother and 2 young) shooting down a 

 slide into the water. They did it two or three times each 

 before they smelt him and dashed into a hole. 



Wherever I seek in Eastern America I find corroboration 

 of this. Archie Miller, guide, from Mattawa, says that he has 

 seen hundreds of these slides, and, no later than October, 1904, 

 he watched a family of Otters at their slide at Blue Lake, 40 

 miles north-east of Mattawa. These were 2 old and 5 young 

 ones. They slid down, rapidly climbing up again to slide 

 down as before, for a full hour. 



They are far from restricting this sport to snow time, 

 however. 



Kennicott says further: "This curious habit seems to be slide at 

 indulged in by the Otter at all times, when a suitable place can seasons 

 be found, though more in the love season [late February] than 

 any other." 



Chief Mittigwab, after spending a lifetime in Otter 

 country and seeing many Otter, says that they slide all the year 

 round, for amusement; usually, but not always, at special 

 places, most in the snow, during spring and fall. Archie 

 Miller corroborates this in every detail. 



At Swan Lake, Man., James M. Macoun saw slides that 

 were in use during August, and J. G. Millais says of these 

 'chutes''^ that he found numerous in Newfoundland, where he 

 counted no fewer than 6 on one quiet brook flowing into St. 

 John's Lake at the head of the Terra Nova River: 



"All the slides I have examined in Newfoundland had 

 been freshly used and were polished smooth, with the grass and 

 moss all worn away, showing that they had been in constant 

 use all the summer." 



'"Mam. G. B. & I., 1905, Vol. II, p. 21. 



